Here’s a mug shot of the thug who has stolen many hearts through his Meditation Photography blog site.
As I’d said earlier actually the time slot was very narrow… still I said let me see him even if its just for a few minutes. Drove up to his office… we spent some quality time, I was reluctant as he was extending himself even though he had a flight in the evening but he seemed ok with it.
It was a really inspiring half an hour, and there was a certain amount of of clarity in talking to him. Details of the conversation are something I may write about later on, if I manage to implement it in my life, else I might just end up being a parrot 
Being a tubelight character, I thought of a lot of things I wished I’d asked him, on my way home ! 
He’ll probably be back in Bangalore maybe a month or so later – so maybe some other time, though doubt that ultimately we have to find our answers within ourselves!
There was no doubt that here was a truly wonderful human being, a real person who’s really has the head touching and beyond the sky, and yet feet firmly planted on Earth.
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sanju,
thanks for introducing us to suresh gundappa.
best wishes
rk -
welcome bellur!
Though I didnt want to say anything when I posted the above because I was yet to digest it, I’d still like to talk about some of the things he said. I might be distorting something, this is just as I remember it and as it applies to me.
He emphasized the importance of uncompromising discipline in meditating every day in whatever way I chose, ideally in some way independent of my past, first thing in the morning, and before going to sleep.
I explained one of my situations of being a Jekyl and Hyde character… sometimes I am regular with my daily sittings, and sometimes I just laze away and procrastinate and completely miss it. First of all he emphasised the importance of not ‘expecting’ anything or any particular change of ourselves… out of meditation. In retrospect, I remember a quote I’d posted here earlier…
When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they’re going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It’s a bit like saying, “If I jog, I’ll be a much better person.†“If I could only get a nicer house, I’d be a better person.†“If I could meditate and calm down, I’d be a better personâ€â€¦ But loving-kindness – maitri – toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.
- Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness
Another thing is he’d got these lovely calendars based on his photos – free for some NGO (sichrem: making human rights a household concept). The photo part of the calendar can also be seperated into a postcard that could be used after the month. He was talking about how it helps the NGO – Archies bought around 1 lakh of the cards, to sell to its customers (and proceeds go to the NGO) and then if around 3 or 4 people see each card (multiply by 12 for each month), just think of the exposure the NGO gets!
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I was browsing through and found your site with Suresh’s Meditation photography. It really absolutely stunning images. Thanks for introducing.
Regards
Sanjay Kattimani
http://sanjay-explores.blogspot.com/ -
from one Sanjay to another – HI
And that’s a really cool travelogue you have there!
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